RTS kit network question
by Pedro Damian Meza Herrera · in RTS Starter Kit · 12/23/2004 (7:43 am) · 1 replies
Hello all.
I am starting on an Online dungeon siege like game and I just purchased the indie torque and the RTS kit.
The RTS kit nertwork code seems more robust for a MMORPG game, but what it lacks its the ability to players join at any given time. At first the game will be LAN oriented but I plan that on future be hosted on a company server.
On another post I was told that this could be fixed by replacing the lobby code with a custom login code.
I have a few questions and this RTS forum seems a better place to ask.
I know that the network code of the RTS kit is optimized to handle several RTS Units, but does this network code is able to replicate the world/zone from the server into the client once it joins?
If I plan to adquire the Shader engine, would it be a difficult task to implement my code on it? or would it be better to stay away of the RTS kit if I plan to get the TSE?
thanks
I am starting on an Online dungeon siege like game and I just purchased the indie torque and the RTS kit.
The RTS kit nertwork code seems more robust for a MMORPG game, but what it lacks its the ability to players join at any given time. At first the game will be LAN oriented but I plan that on future be hosted on a company server.
On another post I was told that this could be fixed by replacing the lobby code with a custom login code.
I have a few questions and this RTS forum seems a better place to ask.
I know that the network code of the RTS kit is optimized to handle several RTS Units, but does this network code is able to replicate the world/zone from the server into the client once it joins?
If I plan to adquire the Shader engine, would it be a difficult task to implement my code on it? or would it be better to stay away of the RTS kit if I plan to get the TSE?
thanks
Torque 3D Owner Stephen Zepp
We plan on moving our project to TSE ourselves once it hits roughly milestone 4 or so, depending on stability and feature set (and our progress as well). Porting anything to anything is a matter of skill and knowledge of your own project, as well as knowlege of what you are porting to. There isn't anything at all in the RTS-SK that would stop you from porting to TSE, although some functionality may (or may not!) be more difficult than others.
replicating world/zone from server into client: I'm not quite sure what you are asking here, but if you mean "will the RTS SK work in a dedicated client-dedicated server setup"--absolutely. There are some tweaks and adjustments that are required, since out of the box the RTS-SK is configured for server scripts and client scripts to be on the same machine, but it's not very difficult. I would suggest reading all of the bugs and bug resolutions presented in the RTS SK Bugs forum, as well as the resources forums, to get a feel for what various folks have done.
logging in at any time: Actually, the RTS-SK doesn't "lack" the capability to login at any time, it was simply packaged with a lobby system that assumes as a design criteria that you would be making a more normal "RTS genre" game like WC3 where everyone joins at once. The functionality is -all- there, and you simply need to remove the lobby portion of the login process.
NOTE: There are some gameplay assumptions and issues regarding RTS genre games that allow for logging in/player creation at any time. If you think about it, the primary win strategy for most RTS games is to be more efficient and faster with collecting resources, teching up, and building an army. If everyone doesn't start from the same time instant, and the same amount of resources, there is a huge breakdown in gameplay--how does the newest player "catch up" and have even a snowball's chance to accomplish anything? It's not a trivial design issue, and one that you'll need to work on extensively if you want a "login at any time" RTS genre game. (It has nothing to do with TGE by the way, simply your game design).